Saturday, 21 October 2017

What began as a partnership of necessity
ended as the golden combination. Nathan Walsh and Connor Reinman joined forces
in a last minute decision in order to ensure Reinman would have a partner for
his first Ontario Doubles tournament and that choice proved extremely fruitful.Throughout the day they battled nerves, a bit
of a tough morning, world class competitors, and even a sting from an angry
wasp! In the end they prevailed against it all; the victory gave Walsh his
third NCA title of the year, and vaulted Reinman into the elite company of NCA
champions.

The morning started off with 58
competitors, a tournament record. The recreation division consisted of 15
teams, while on the other side of the hall there were 14 teams battling for
Ontario Doubles supremacy.The
recreation side had some familiar faces including Jo-Ann and Al Carter, Peter
Carter and last years’ NCA rec champ, Bill Harris, Gloria and Tom Walsh, and
Wayne and Jennifer Scott. On the competitive side, this may have been the most
loaded field in tournament history.Amongst the favourites were father-son duo and defending champions Fred
and Justin Slater.Three time tournament
winner, and most decorated doubles pair ever, Ray and Jason Beierling, were
back to try to regain their crown.Jon
Conrad and Andrew Hutchinson were teaming up for a 2nd year in a
row, trying to improve upon their third place finish from the previous
year.Roy Campbell and Jeremy Tracey,
two competitors who are never afraid to try – and often make – the near
impossible shot, joined forces for a 2nd time (the first time being
the 2017 World Championships).Finally,
the surprise pairing of Nathan Walsh and Connor Reinman was the wildcard entry
that made this tournament so interesting.Besides these 5 pairs, there were many more that had a legitimate shot
at making the top 4 including, but not limited to, Tom and Rex Johnston, Clare
Kuepfer and Neil Cook, Ray Kappes and Howard Martin, and the junior Tracey
brothers, Reid and Nolan.

In the recreation division, the teams
broke into 2 randomly selected groups for a round robin.The top teams in the morning would make the ‘A’
group in the afternoon, while the remaining teams would make up the ‘B’
group.In the first pool Murray Purdue
and David Whyte came out on top with 41 points, followed by Tony and Rich
Vanden Hoven (36 points), Maxine Whitmore and Lola VanDerheide (27 points), and
Carmen and Evelyn Hodgkinson (23 points). In the second group Bill Harris and
Peter Carter racked up an impressive 44 points, ahead of a trio of teams
finishing with 36 points (Wayne/Jennifer Scott, Jo-Ann and Al Carter, Gloria
and Tom Walsh).Those 8 teams would make
up the recreation A group in the afternoon, while the rest of the teams would
face off for the rec B crown.

Over on the other side of the hall, in
the competitive division the 14 teams were randomly broken into 2 groups of 7
in the morning.The same process would
happen again in the afternoon and after adding the morning and afternoon
results, the top 4 would play off for the championship.In the morning the Beierling’s got off to a
characteristically fast start with 43 points.Campbell and Tracey also got off to a quick start with 37 points.Turning a few heads were Kuepfer and Cook
with 36 points.Rounding out the initial
top 4 were the perennially slow starting Slaters, with 34 points.On the outside, looking to make a run in the
afternoon were Walsh and Reinman (31 points), Kappes and Martin (30 points),
Conrad and Hutchinson (29 points) and the Tracey brothers (28 points).Howeverthese teams had some heavy lifting ahead if they were going to climb out
of the hole that they had dug themselves into in the morning.

At this point, all the players took a
break for lunch.Lunch was a delicious
spread of sandwiches, veggies and baked goods. After the short break, the recreation group
broke into an A and B division, for another round robin.The top two teams from each level would face
off in their division’s finals. In Rec A, the Purdue/Whyte tandem continued to
dominate with an impressive 49 points. Battling it out for the 2nd
spot in the Rec A finals were Bill Harris and Peter Carter and Jo-Ann and Al
Carter, both teams finishing with 35 points.And although Harris/Carter finished with 10 more 20’s, Jo-Ann and Al
advanced based on winning the head-to-head.Despite being at the top of the pack all day, Purdue/Whyte couldn’t
finish the tournament off with the win, coming out on the losing side to Jo-Ann
and Al Carter. In the Rec B round robin, Dave Carnahan and Fred Smith finished
in first place with 33 points, just ahead of Alex Ostrem and Jack McLachlin
with 32 points.The 2 teams met in the
finals, with Carnahan/Smith coming away with the title.

2017 Rec A Champions - Jo-Ann & Al Carter

On the competitive side, the groups
broke into 2 groups again and tried to outdo their morning score in order to
secure a spot in the top 4.The top 2
teams from the morning had no problem in the afternoon and the Beierlings (88
points) and Campbell/Tracey (80 points) slid comfortably into 1st
and 2nd place for the day.Also having strong afternoons were the Slaters, Walsh/Reinman, and the
Johnstons. The question would be whether any of them had strong enough scores
to pass Kuepfer/Cook.The partners from
Scone, however, had a disappointing afternoon with only 27 points, finishing
the day with 63 total points.That let
the Slaters (73 points) and Walsh/Reinman (71 points), having done enough in
the afternoon, to secure a spot in the top 4.In addition to Kuepfer/Cook, the Johnstons (60 points total),
Kappes/Martin (58 points total) and the disappointing Conrad/Hutchinson (55
points total) sat on the outside looking in.

So after a pair of round robins, we had
our playoffs set.Ray and Jason
Beierling would face off against Nathan Walsh and Connor Reinman in the one
semi-final.While in the 2nd
semi-final, Jeremy Tracey would take on Fred and Justin Slater.The first semi-final was notable in matching
the 3 time Ontario Doubles Champions and front runner all day long versus a
first time partnership that started to find their rhythm in the afternoon.What looked like a compelling, if possibly
one-sided, matchup was certainly interesting, but not for the reasons anyone
would have expected.Walsh and Reinman
both seemed very relaxed from the beginning.On the other hand, the Beierling’s, possibly due to the pressures of
both running and participating in a tournament, just never seemed to settle
in.From the first shot they seemed out
of sorts, and never really found their groove.Walsh and Reinman won the first game to go up 2-0 in this first to 9
contest.This trend continued throughout
the rest of the match, and Walsh and Reinman continued to win, going out to an
8-0 lead.They would only need to secure
a tie in order to move on to the finals.In the next game, one that was filled with leaners for both teams, Walsh
and Reinman finished off the favourites, capping off a shocking 10-0 victory.

2017 ODCC 4th Place - Jeremy Tracey & Roy Campbell

The other semi-final saw the defending
champion Slaters, who always seem to peak in the playoffs against the
high-ceiling duo of Campbell and Tracey.Campbell and Tracey got off to a strong start, Tracey looking like he
hadn’t missed a beat since his 2nd place finish in Belleville and
Campbell looking like he was back to his 2015-16 form.They started off the first round playing some
really solid crokinole, racing to a 2-0 lead.The Slaters were looking vulnerable and the possibility that their
attempt to repeat might come to an early end seemed entirely possible.However, in the next round, fortunes started
to shift, even if just subtly.The
Slater’s experience started to shine through, while Campbell/Tracey – though
still playing strong crokinole – started to make a few small but costly
mistakes. The Slaters rode this turn of events to four straight victorious
rounds to gain an 8-2 edge.With the
hammer in the next round, the Slaters could smell victory, only needing to gain
a single point to advance; what followed was some strategic and well thought
out crokinole. As the number of shots left in the round dwindled, Campbell/Tracey
led the 20 count by one, but the Slaters had a number of their pieces on the
board.Finally the hammer shot came
around to Fred, and he needed a take-out and stick in the 5 to keep 20 points
on the board to negate the opponent’s 20 advantage.He made the shot to secure a tie in the round
and a 9-3 victory in the game to advance to the finals.

2017 ODCC Runners-up - Justin & Fred Slater

So the finals saw the 3 and 4 seeds face
off with long time partners Fred and Justin Slater opposing first time duo
Nathan Walsh and Connor Reinman.In the
first round, with the Slater’s holding hammer, there were no 20s until the
second last shot, when Walsh hit a ricochet 20 to guarantee his team at least
one point; with the hammer shot Justin Slater missed his open 20 attempt,
meaning that Walsh/Reinman would steal the round to go up 2-0.They would build on that momentum and
increase their lead winning the next three games to go ahead 8-0, requiring
only one more point to win the first-to-9 championship.The next game was a 20 fest, and it looked
like it would go Walsh/Reinman’s way when Justin Slater was the first to miss a
20.However, on the very next shot
Reinman’s take out attempt knocked the Slater disc into the centre and the
Slaters wouldn’t look back that round,outscoring their opponents in 20’s 9-8 for the round and putting their
first points on the board to cut the lead to 8-2.If the Slaters had any idea of an epic
comeback, however, Walsh and Reinman put an end to that quickly, securing the
next round in order to clinch the championship 10-2.

Some interesting notes about this
tournament:

·Walsh currently holds both the
World and Ontario Doubles Championship, but with different partners.

·Reinman becomes the first
American to ever win an NCA title; however as he is a dual-citizen, we can
still say that every NCA champion has been a Canadian!

·In the playoffs, Walsh and
Reinman beat arguably the two best doubles teams by a combined score of 20-2!

·With Walsh committed to
attempting to defend his world doubles championship with Clare Kuepfer in June,
Reinman is left as a very desirable ‘free agent’ partner

·This is the first ODCC where
neither the Beierlings nor Fred Slater (whether partnering with Brian Cook or
Justin) would win the title.

·Nathan Walsh continues his
strong start to the NCA season with his 3rd win and a total of 195
points. Players with a single victory on the season are Ray Beierling (183
points), Clare Kuepfer (163 points), Reinman (95 points in only 2 tournaments)
and Robert Bonnett (50 points from winning the only tournament he’s entered).

So with the Scenic City Crokinole
Tournament coming up on Saturday, November 25 Walsh is looking to further
cement his lead as he seeks out his first ever NCA crown, while a handful of
opponents try to scratch and claw a bit closer in the NCA race.

Andrew Hutchinson is both a competitive cues and fingers crokinole player who won the 2016 Cues World Championship and finished in the Top 16 of the 2017 Fingers World Championship. He can be followed on Twitter @FavouriteHutch

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